Download abstracts 59-60

CAHIERS DE SOCIOLOGIE ECONOMIQUE ET CULTURELLE –
N° 59-60
ABSTRACTS
Mahefasoa RANDRIANALIJAONA, Emilienne RAPARSON, Thierry
RAZANAKOTO, Jérôme BALLET
CLIMATIC HAZARDS AND MIGRATION. A CASE STUDY ON
ANALANJIROFO DISTRICT, MADAGASCAR
The east coast of Madagascar is affected by many hurricanes each year.
In addition to this situation, the households in this region suffer from a
high level of food insecurity. Under these conditions, one would expect
the households to adopt a strategy of migration. On the basis of a survey
conducted in two villages, we try to understand why people do not in fact
migrate, although their living conditions should lead them to do so. Our
answer to this question lies in the analysis of village solidarity that hinders
personal mobility.
Robert TÉFÉ TAGNE
A SOCIO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF URBAN
ALTERNATIVE MARKETS: THE EMBEDDEDNESS OF
MARKET FUNCTIONS
This study of alternative markets in the city of Douala, Cameroon,
seeks an answer to the following interrogation: in which ways do small
urban trades generate collectives, interactions, market arrangements, and
implicit rules, all features characterizing alternative markets, although
these trades, while economically and socially useful, occupy weakly
legitimated spaces? The approach rests on a qualitative methodology
centered on ethnographic field inquiries, and covers two types of
activities: the “bayam sellam”, and the transformation of rattan. The
theoretical framework resorts to scientific hybridization, with an ethnomethodological background. The study reveals that, under conditions
which are never stabilized but always under construction, alternative
markets generate socially embedded market functions.
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Fiorella VINCI
FAMILY ENTERPRISES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
What are the relations between family enterprises and economic
innovation ? In an effort to answer this question, this article reviews on the
theoretical level some weberian keys in order to understand the historical
and public features of the schumpeterian entrepreneur. The empirical
analysis is aimed at the reconstruction of the logics and practices of
innovation as they have been accounted for by young agricultural
entrepreneurs who work all over the Italian territory. The combination of
theoretical considerations and empirical analysis shows that the possibility
for young people to start innovative actions rests on the promotional
function of the history of the family and on the role of the local
community. The freedom of young people in the choice of their career and
the enhancement of the social purposes of the enterprise appear to be the
main paths toward the promotion of innovation by young people in family
companies.
Paul Ulrich OTYE ELOM
CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF MONEY TRANSFERS IN
CAMEROON : AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
DIASPORA FUNDS
In Cameroon, if one of your relatives is living in western countries, this
means a constant inflow of gifts and money. So, to escape from poverty,
the West remains the Eldorado in everyone’s dreams, and it is a great pride
to see one of your relatives going there, because it raises the hope for a
better future. In fact, every year, astronomic sums of money are sent to
individuals by persons living in Northern countries. For the most part, this
money is being used for primary needs, rather than being risked in long
term investment projects. Diaspora money transfers remain largely “belly
money” as they are satisfying basic needs, and “sham money”, since we
must show to others that we have gone from survival to life. This article
strives to analyse the “inner meaning” of diaspora money transfers, and to
reveal the cultural patterns that make diaspora funds, support funds, rather
than funds for sustainable economic investment.
Thierry SUCHÈRE
A RE-READING OF MONEY [1891] BY EMILE ZOLA: THE
COMPARISON BETWEEN STOCK MARKETS AND
PLAYGROUNDS.
During the second half of the 19th century, a new literary genre
appeared: the «stock market novel». In a context marked by major
financial scandals, the public, the politicians and the media of developed
countries asked themselves whether or not stock markets should operate
freely. In Emile Zola's novel Money [1891], the stock exchange is
described as a gambling den, the speculators as highway robbers and the
small investors as naive people. To compare the stock market with a game
means to put the market on trial. The same charges are held against
speculation and gambling (e.g. poker): they make the enrichment of some
individuals possible, they resort to mere chance to create opportunities for
an upward social mobility and they deny all the speeches about merit,
effort and work.
Philippe HUGON
ANTHROPOLOGY AND ECONOMICS IN A GLOBALIZATION
CONTEXT
The study of the relations between anthropology and economics can
lead to two interpretations. According to the first interpretation, gift vs.
trade, utilitarianism vs. symbolic, traditional vs. modern values, common
or communitarian vs. individualistic, non-capitalist vs. capitalist orders, all
must be opposed. According to the second interpretation, anthropology
and economics are, in fact, complementary and both necessary to analyze
a hybrid and evolutionary reality made up of destruction and
restructuration, various combinations that are more or less conflictual,
pluralistic references and confrontation of different value systems. The
present article illustrates this debate from the viewpoint of development
and globalization, in order to lay the foundations of an economic
anthropology in a context of globalization and asymmetric liberalism.
François-Régis MAHIEU
ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY, COMING BACK TO THE
SUBJECT?
Economic Anthropology is a matter of hard debates in social sciences;
except for economics since its condemnation by Frank Knight (1941).
However, this method gives us a new approach of the economic agent, not
only «homo oeconomicus» but a whole person with a complex array of
dimensions, notably psychological ones. It enlarges economic
responsibility to all decisions which create suffering.
Alice Nicole SINDZINGRE
THE RELEVANCE OF ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY WHEN
ECONOMICS INTEGRATES ANTHROPOLOGY’S CONCEPTS:
THE EXAMPLE OF SOCIAL NORMS
At the end of the 20th century, economic anthropology suffered a
relative eclipse, while the field of economics extended its subjects of study
to phenomena that had previously been situated beyond its scope, such as
institutions and social norms, political institutions, and cognitive
representations. Economists now consider that they analyse the subjects of
other social sciences with more scientific rigour thanks to the
mathematics-based methodology of their discipline. Through the example
of institutions that govern social memberships, and in the context of SubSaharan Africa, the article shows that institutions are not measurable
variables and that, when it comes to analysing their economic effects, the
approach of anthropology remains epistemologically superior.